PARKER'S ISLAND

A mushy romance set in the opulent era of the ""Victorian"" summer hotel--a prominent feature of Parker's Island, off the coast of Massachusetts. The lovers are 18-year-old Gwyn, chambermaid at the Inn, and Tom, wealthy young Boston vacationer, who likes to paint but is going to be a banker. Purely and innocently the two gambol in a cave--and gamble too: Gwyn, after Tom's departure from the island, discovers she's pregnant. She writes an urgent letter to Tom, but 50-year-old Ethan, family friend and mail boat skipper, suspicious of Tom's intentions, flips the letter, unread, into the sea. Gwyn's secret revealed, Ethan offers to marry Gwyn and father the unborn. The pair move to the mainland, where Ethan becomes prosperous. But guess who arrives to take over the new bank, now married to freaky, malicious Olive? Tom, of course. What to do? Easy. Ethan is erased with a fatal heart attack; and Olive, who has been causing trouble (""Gwyn has destroyed us all with her lust,"" she says), is carted off to the funny farm. (""Yes, she'll not live long,"" announces Tom.) At the close Tom arrives at ""their"" cliffs and ""With a cry she fell into his arms."" For the Cartland crowd.